Assemblyman Rick Keene was one of nine Republicans in the lower house to cast a vote for the budget that passed out last Thursday night (or was that Friday morning)? He has submitted the following commentary to add to the discussion on the state budget:

[UPDATED 3:45 PM — Attached below this post is the official statement of the California Term Limits Defense Fund – worth a read…]

I note with interest that, despite the absence of a budget, Fabian Nunez has green-lighted the turning in of signatures for the ballot measure to extend his time in office by six years (and those of many of his termed-out colleagues as well). I know from personal experience that the pitch being made by paid signature gatherers at my local store was, "Sir, will you sign a petition to cut the time career politicians can spend in office?" So with that in mind, there is simply no way for proponents of the "Career Politician Term Extension Act" to argue that in turning over a million signatures, there is some level of ‘popular support’ for their measure. Not when the gatherers are misleading the signers. We all know, of course, that a huge percentage of California legislators (including the Senate President and Assembly Speaker face the term-limits axe next November, and gauging every possible… Read More

In a couple ofposts I wrote about the Republicans for AB 1634 web site. See them here and here.I labeled it “fake” because it misused the GOP logo and was headed up by someone who didn’t show up as a Republican. The name used was S. L. Reeves. The only S.L. Reeves registered in California was a Dem. Of course initials make it hard to track them someone down. Well, they tracked me down. As itturns out S.L. Reeves is a form of the person’s maiden name. I looked up here real name and she is a registered Republican. She says she is a conservative and hates “nanny” government, but views AB 1634 as necessary. You may wonder, like I did about the high degree of secrecy around this. She claims to have received several threats over the … Read More

Undoubtedly the ‘heat is on’ for all of those interest groups and customers of state government spending — put pressure on those darned Senate Republicans to pass a budget. Fortunately, our GOP Senators are a well grounded group of folks who have core principled beliefs, and who actually value their role as a representative of California taxpayers, who deserve, among other things, a balanced budget.

That said, FR readers should keep calling or e-mailing Senate Republicans and give them a friendly, "Hang in there! We’re with you!"

Lobbyists and special interest groups — take a number.… Read More

Remember the "oood old days". I do. Back in the 80’s conservatives like me on college campuses were focused on anti-communist activity. I still call The People’s Republic of China, “Red China”. Communists were communists and we were better dead than red! I wrote an editorial in the Daily Bruin criticizing President Bush (the first) for doing nothing to China during the massacres at Tiananmen Square. Those days are sadly passed as many self-described conservatives claim that the “free market” China is somehow better. Of course,there are also manybusiness interests in China. Now the cause for beating up Red China haspassed to the Left. Coalitions of Free Tibet Hollywood types and members and sympathizers of the … Read More

In the post below this one, Assemblyman Anthony Adams has reprinted a memo that went out to the Governor and GOP legislators from the California State Sheriff’s Association. Because of the way that the memo was carefully worded, referring only to the "law enforcement portion of the budget," I took the liberty of reaching out to CSSA’s lobbyist, Nick Warner. I have known Nick for quite a few years now, building a relationship with him during my nearly six years full-time with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Nick quickly clarified with me that it was not and is not CSSA’s goal to pressure Senate Republicans, or anyone else for that matter, where the budget is concerned. Rather, CSSA wanted to get something out "on the record" making sure that they expressed their support for the current level of law enforcement funding within the budget that has been passed out of the Assembly.

This does not appear to be a controversial position on the part of CSSA because from my conversations with many GOP State Senators, and also with many GOP Assemblymembers who voted against the budget, there is no groundswell from the… Read More

Brad Mitzelfelt is the newest person to joign Team Knight in the 36th AD Race. See previuos post on the race here. Mitzelfelt is a central figure to the San Bernardino County side of this two-county district, as the local County Supervisor there.

This is a solid endorsement for Knight.… Read More

I could not be more proud of the fifteen members of the Senate Republican Caucus. Despite an immense amount of pressure, and an immature Democrat Senate President who "locked in" the entire 40 member Senate in their chamber overnight, they remained unified as a caucus, as Republicans. Going into this period of budget negotiations, Senate Republicans took a pact, made a pledge, took a vote — until a majority of our caucus is satisfied with the negotiated budget agreement, we will all refrain from voting from a budget bill. In doing this, Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Senate Budget Committee Vice Chairman Dennis Hollingsworth are significantly more empowered to negotiate on behalf of Senate Republicans. The reality, as spelled out by so many Republicans, is that the budget bill that was passed out of the Assembly is a bad one for Californians. Yes, Assembly GOP Leader Mike Villines made a tactical call that in his opinion, it was as good as it was going to get given the GOP’s minority status (not to mention all GOPers being hamstrung when the Governor proposed a spending package so large that even the Democrats… Read More